New Year's Magic
by OwlinAMinor
Summary: A series of drabbles about Percy and Annabeth and the tradition of watching the ball drop at Times Square on New Year's Eve.  Percabeth.  Happy new year to all readers! :


**NEW YEAR'S MAGIC**

**Or, what happens when an author trying to pull an all-nighter so she can watch the sun rise gets a plot bunny that's Percabeth-related.**

**This is basically a series of drabbles about Percy and Annabeth, and their history with the tradition of watching the ball drop at Times Square. The last three are, of course, not necessarily canon, as we don't know the ending of the series yet.**

**The Disclaimer from Pluto: Pluto says that OwlinAMinor does not own Percy Jackson. She does not agree with Pluto, even though it she knows Pluto is awesome. She is suddenly speaking in third person for no apparent reason. And she wants you to enjoy the story. :)**

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The first time Percy watched the ball drop, he was four and a half months old, and he doesn't remember it at all.

But he likes to imagine that he remembers it – after all, it's one of his mom's favorite stories about him.

Percy had slumbered in his mother's arms, peaceful and warm in the chilly winter air, for the past two hours. His mother is about to wake him at the start of the countdown, but he wakes up on his own.

His avid sea-green eyes follow the glistening orb as it travels down its chute.

"ZERO! HAPPY NEW YEAR!" cheers the crowd.

"Eeeeee!" cries Percy.

"Aaaah!" scream all the people within a fifty-food radius of Percy – those who've been drenched in a tidal wave of seawater that came out of nowhere.

The crime, however, is never linked to the young son of Poseidon – who promptly falls back into the depths of slumber, his satisfied smirk clearly reading "My work here is done."

* * *

Ever since then, Percy spends every one of his New Year's Eves in Times Square.

It's the best thing about his city, and he couldn't survive without it.

* * *

Percy's third time watching the ball drop is the keeper of his first memory.

The memory is no more than a flash of sparks that light up the sky like fireworks, a roar of a crowd that can be heard for miles around, and a shower of confetti that he twirls around in, giggling madly.

But Percy cherishes it.

Because it contains a magical quality, something that he's never been able to name, but nonetheless knows is there.

* * *

The first time Annabeth witnesses that magical quality, she's six and on the run with Thalia and Luke.

They were in New York State, setting up some safe houses, when they realized it was New Year's Eve and decided to take the opportunity to watch the ball drop.

_It's safe,_ they think, _because of all the people. _No monsters would dare attack them in this huge crowd.

So when the mass of people counts down and the ball smashes to a beautiful, glittering end, Annabeth screams and bounces up and down, celebrating even though she's not sure what she's celebrating for.

And at the same time, Luke goes out on a limb, turns to Thalia, and kisses her straight on the mouth.

Once the daughter of Zeus gets over her shock, she and the son of Hermes make out so passionately that it draws a crowd.

Watching this, Annabeth vows that someday, somehow, she's going to kiss a boy like that in Times Square on the brink of a new year.

* * *

Percy's tenth time spending New Year's Even in Times Square is tarnished forever in his memory as his mother's first date with Gabe.

Sally Jackson wishes she didn't have to do it – she hates the giant pig of a man almost as much as her son does – but she knows that Gabe can keep the monsters away.

_It's for his own good,_ she tells herself over and over as the cheering erupts more powerfully than a volcano, as the clock strikes midnight, as Gabe attaches his slobbery, disgusting lips to hers, as she's forced to only watch as Percy sprints off, sobbing, into the masses of people.

He doesn't come home for three days.

And she doesn't punish him.

* * *

The second time Annabeth witnesses the Times Square New Year's Eve tradition, she witnesses it through a TV.

She's thirteen and spending New Years with her dad and his new family, eating a fancy dinner, tasting champagne, participating in toasts, watching funny old movies, basically celebrating the holiday with an almost-normal family for the first time in her life.

They have CNN's live coverage of the event playing in the background, which Annabeth doesn't really pay attention to until a familiar face pops onto the screen a couple minutes before midnight.

"Hi, world! This is my fourteenth New Years in Times Square, and I'm only thirteen!" exclaims an excited Percy, grinning and waving to the camera in his goofy souvenir hat.

"Wow, that's pretty impressive!" the reporter, a blond woman pretty in a make-up-and-plastic-surgery kind of way, responds. "Say, Percy, do you have anything you'd like to say to any of your friends who might be watching this?"

"Yeah!" he shouts over the roar of the crowd behind him. "Hey, Annabeth! How're things in San Francisco? Bet they're not nearly as great as they are in New York!" Someone hoots drunkenly in agreement.

"Next year," Percy adds, "I'm taking you here with me!"

Before he can say anything else, he's cut off, because everyone is counting backward from ten.

* * *

So the next year, it's Annabeth's third time and Percy's fifteenth. Just as promised, they're together in Times Square.

Percy, an old veteran at this now, is pointing out all the attractions and cheap souvenir stands, goofing around with some of his friends from school, while Annabeth is smiling and nodding even though she can barely hear him.

The daughter of Athena can feel the excited, surging energy of the crowd as they tick off the seconds until the New Year.

When the countdown reaches zero, they're suddenly drenched with confetti, and Percy grabs Annabeth in a bear hug that she's telling herself she isn't enjoying as much as she really is, whispering "Isn't this the coolest thing ever?" into her ear.

The hug lasts a little too long, and Annabeth thinks she might just get that kiss she vowed she'd obtain nine years ago. But Percy being Percy, he chickens out.

Somehow, it's almost better that way.

* * *

Another year goes by and it's Annabeth's fourth time, but this time she can barely keep from crying.

She hasn't seen Percy in months, and she just knows that he found another girlfriend in that stupid Roman camp and completely forgot her, and she'll never get that kiss she vowed she would all those years ago.

So she's standing in Times Square, hearing the crowd chant but not joining in, feeling the tears crashing down her cheeks like breakers in the ocean.

This is the first year Percy isn't here, so she has to be here in his place.

Only there are just two more seconds until the New Year, and she doesn't think she can last that long.

But as the crowd's roar reaches dinosaur level and the ball, glowing brighter than any star, reaches bottom, she finds herself in a lip-lock.

With none other than Seaweed Brain himself.

Percy tells her later that a couple days before New Years, he gained an uncontrollable urge to visit New York City, and escaped the Roman camp to hitch-hike, train-hike, boat-hike, hippocampi-hike, and hike-hike to Times Square. When he got there, he saw the crowd and the glistening ball, heard the music and the cheering, felt the magic, and something just clicked in his head. Just like that, his memories returned, and he was going to stop at nothing to find the girl he loved.

But right now, Annabeth doesn't care how and why he got there. She just cares that he's here, he remembers her, he still loves her, he's kissing her, she's kissing him back, and it feels like the best thing that ever happened to her.

Forget about her vow (even if it _was_ fulfilled) – she has her boyfriend back.

* * *

Ten years later, Percy's lost count of all the times he's seen the ball drop at Times Square.

Between some fights, break-ups, and misunderstandings, he and Annabeth are still together.

They go out to dinner at 9pm, reservations he surprised her with, and he spends the whole three hours from then until midnight gathering the far-strewn reaches of his courage like a soldier preparing for battle.

As the New Year is ushered in with sparkling lights that light up the sky like lightning, showers of confetti, and thousands of voices uniting in classic tunes like Imagine and Auld Lang Zyne, Percy pulls Annabeth behind an abandoned hot dog stand and lowers one knee to the trash-covered asphalt.

Out of the pocket of his miraculously clean jeans, he pulls out a small, elegant, silver ring with a diamond-shaped stone the exact color of Annabeth's eyes.

"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena," he begins with the half-smile he knows melts her heart like heat melts butter, "I love you. I always have, and I don't think it's physically possible for me to ever stop. You're clever, wise, strong, beautiful . . . everything a guy like me could ask for. I swear I'll never do anything to hurt you, forget you, or take you for granted. Will you marry me?"

Blushing the color of a ripe strawberry, her blue-gray eyes shining brighter than the ball that just dropped, the girl in question squeals and hugs Percy so hard he thinks she'll crush his ribs.

He takes that as a yes.

* * *

Sixty years later, Times Square on New Year's Eve has been the setting of a wedding, a birth, a death, and countless arguments, reconciliations, tears, laughter, proclamations of love and hate, and steamy make-out sessions for Percy and Annabeth Jackson.

To this day, they haven't figured out what exactly is so magical about that exact place and time.

Sometimes they say it's excitement, sometimes love, sometimes sadness, sometimes anger, sometimes joy, sometimes family, sometimes just plain fun, and sometimes a combination of them all.

Whatever it is, the moment when time hangs between the old year and the new in that square in New York City is filled with magic, emotion, and the potential to make amazing things happen.

They hope that someday you can experience it for yourself, and wish you a happy new year.

* * *

**I wish you a happy new year too, of course. :)**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Reviews, no matter the type, are almost as appreciated as dark chocolate in OwlinAMinor-world (some of which I will go steal as soon as I post this).**


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